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Natural Beauty: Healthy Skin on a Budget

Let’s talk
skincare today. How to nurture your skin to radiance without hurting your
wallet. There are a lot of products with fancy names and ingredients out there. I used to buy into all the hype.
Spending money I didn’t have on products with disappointing results.

It all started
in 2011, straight out of NYSC camp. I was darker than usual. Staying three
weeks in camp in the peak of dry season is no easy task! Imagine the heat. I
spent an inordinate amount of time exposed to the sun. Because I wanted to
experience all of NYSC. And my friends had bet that a “just-came-back” gal like
me couldn’t possibly survive the travails of camp life. I was determined to
prove them wrong. Parade. Volleyball. Endurance trek. I did it all. I won the
bet. But my skin suffered.

After camp, I
was several shades darker with uneven skintone. I succumbed to the pressure
to “tone” my skin. I stopped using the shea butter I had at the time and bought
expensive products that promised milky skin. Let’s just say I didn’t like the
result. After much experimenting, I went back to using my shea butter mixed
with natural oils. My skin healed and
I’ve never looked back since.

So, how do I
get my skin to behave?

Natural cleansers, oils and butters. Totally inexpensive but very
effective. I’ve been using a mixture of unrefined coconut oil, jojoba oil and
sweet almond oil as my body moisturizer for a while now with great results. I
especially like coconut oil because it’s lightweight. Perfect for our scorching
weather. I also use it exclusively as a face moisturizer. For my cleanser, I use Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Liquid Soap.

Exfoliate. Apart from the usual 3-step skincare retinue
(wash, tone, moisturize), I like to use natural scrubs twice a week to get rid
of dead skin cells. You can make your own scrubs with any natural skin oil of
your choice. Just add sugar or sea salt as the exfoliating component. You can
also add lime for its skin toning effect and honey for its anti-aging and
moisturizing qualities.

Oil Cleansing: Believe it or not, oil cleansing is the rave
right now. A simple google search and you’d be amazed. I know it sounds weird.
You’re trying to rid your face of oil and here I am talking about cleansing
with oil. But it has worked for me so far. Read all about it here and here.

These are just
some of the things that have worked for me. Skincare doesn’t have to be
complicated or expensive to be effective. Find a routine that works for you and stick to it.

I’ll be sharing
more about my natural skincare routine in later articles.

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Welcome

Hi there! Welcome to my personal space. I’m Nigerian. Efik to be precise. This is where I muse about activities and events that I find interesting, wherever I find myself. You will also find chatter about my culture, particularly our food. I live in Australia for now.